War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

German motorists have begun paying less to fill their cars as fuel subsidies aimed at softening the impact of the Middle East war energy shock come into force, AFP reports.

Prices of petrol had dropped by around 14 cents on average, to 2.06 euros a litre (equivalent to $8.85 per US gallon), and diesel prices by 15 cents, to 2.20 euros a litre, according to the automobile association ADAC.

Marcel Effenberg, a commuter in the northeastern state of Brandenburg, welcomed the subsidies, saying he had been paying 250 to 300 euros a month on fuel to cover costs of a lengthy daily commute.

“Even 20 or 30 euros [in savings] are 20 or 30 euros more that I have at the end of the month,” the 30-year-old told public broadcaster ZDF.

Israel troops have carried out a “sweep” operation with machine guns towards the town of Haddatha in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, National News Agency reports.

Saudi Arabia’s state oil producer Saudi Aramco has raised official selling prices for liquefied petroleum gas by between 9 per cent and 11pc for October due to rising oil prices and higher demand on global markets, traders said, Reuters reports.

Algeria’s Sonatrach lifted LPG prices for October by between 20pc and 23pc, the traders said.

Saudi Aramco’s OSPs are used as a reference for contracts to supply LPG from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region while Sonatrach’s OSPs are used as benchmarks for the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, including Turkey.

Oil prices rose around 2 per cent after China suspended oil products exports, potentially tightening fuel markets already coping with supply shortages globally, while investors continued to assess renewed diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war, Reuters reports.

The new front-month December Brent crude futures contract traded at $100.09 per barrel at 0829 GMT, up 2.1pc, or $2.06, from Wednesday’s close. The November contract expired on Wednesday, settling at $103.50 per barrel, marking a monthly gain of around 14pc in September for the front-month contract.

US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $2.06, or 2.28pc, to $92.48 a barrel.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations has rejected claims surrounding the timing of the departure of the Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi from New York, IRNA reports.

In a statement, Iran’s mission to the UN said, “The Iranian delegation left New York on Monday evening, in accordance with the schedule that had also been communicated to the US.Department of State in advance on September 17.”

“Having achieved nothing, the State Department has resorted to propagating baseless and worthless news,” the mission added.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards welcomed the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as a “historic victory” and called for American troops to leave the Middle East, AFP reports.

The Revolutionary Guards “congratulate the proud nation of Iraq, the united front of the Islamic Resistance, and the revolutionary fighters of the Islamic world on this historic victory,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by their official media.

A new round of consultations regarding the implementation of the bilateral agreement on international information security between Iran and Russia was held in Moscow, IRNA reprots.

The delegations were led by the Director General for International Peace and Security at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Head of the Information Security Department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the meeting, representatives from the relevant agencies of both countries reviewed the current status of cooperation regarding the implementation of the agreement’s provisions and the established action plan.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced in a report that following the Israeli regime’s attacks on Lebanon, which have intensified since last March, 261 children have been martyred and another 1,056 children have been injured, IRNA reports.

Iran says its forces have captured another “advanced smart” unmanned submarine belonging to the US Army in the Strait of Hormuz, TRT reports.

In a statement on the IRGC’s official news outlet Sepah News, the navy said the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which was carrying out “espionage” activities in the Strait of Hormuz, was captured in a “coordinated and complex operation with intelligence dominance and electronic warfare”.

It identified the AUV as the “REMUS 600”, adding that it has been handed over to its specialists for data recovery.

Oil prices fell 1 per cent as recovering crude exports from the Gulf and a surprise rise in US inventories eased supply concerns, while investors weighed renewed US-Iran diplomatic efforts to end their conflict in the Middle East.

Brent crude futures fell 1.1pc to $96.92 a barrel by 0420 GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 1.4pc to $89.18 a barrel.

Both benchmarks rose about $1 a barrel on Wednesday. Brent recorded a monthly gain of around 14pc in September, its biggest since July, while WTI increased by about 5pc on the month.

“Oil’s near-term bias remains negative as recovering shipments from the Gulf region, resumed Saudi exports through Yanbu and a buildup in US inventories ease supply concerns,” said Sugandha Sachdeva, founder of SS WealthStreet, a New Delhi-based research firm.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the Iranian delegation left New York as scheduled on Monday, Al Jazeera reports.

The announcement came shortly after Axios reported that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded the Iranian delegation leave the country immediately after negotiations broke down, citing a US official and a second source with knowledge of the matter.

In a post on X, Iran’s UN mission dismissed the reports, saying: “Having achieved nothing, the State Department has resorted to propagating baseless and worthless news.”

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there were “strong indications” that Iran was involved in suspicious activity at a UK airbase that triggered a major security incident, AFP reports.

“There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham told the BBC in an interview, referring to a weekend bomb scare near the airbase in southwest England, which is used by the US military in its campaign against Tehran.

US President Donald Trump says things will happen “very soon” in Iran, claiming that Tehran’s economy is “no good” and wracked with inflation, and reiterating his claim that Iran’s military has been destroyed.

Addressing an event at the White House, Trump insists that the US has “virtually total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, and claims that over the past three days, “more oil has come out of the Hormuz strait than at any time in the history” of the waterway.

A music festival in Saudi Arabia has announced in an email to ticket holders that it is being postponed, becoming the latest entertainment event to be nixed amid the ongoing Middle East war, AFP reports.

“We know we said we’d see you at Soundstorm this year, so this isn’t the update we wanted to share. With regret, Soundstorm ’26 will be postponed,” the email from the organisers of the MDLBEAST Soundstorm festival reads.

The announcement comes a month after an upcoming UAE concert by singer Christina Aguilera and a separate Abu Dhabi festival featuring Shakira were both cancelled.

US Central Command (Centcom) has announced that Bahrain will be joining the American military’s multinational attack drone task force — which was launched in August — according to a statement.

“We’re excited to welcome Bahrain to Task Force Falcon Strike after the kingdom affirmed its commitment to join Centcom in building the world’s first multinational attack drone unit,” Centcom commander Admiral Brad Cooper is quoted as saying.

“Bahrain is a steadfast partner in strengthening regional security and stability.“

According to Al Jazeera, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi says stability in Lebanon requires “ending the [Israeli] occupation” and the “handover of Hezbollah’s weapons”.

“We want peace with all our neighbours, and we stress the need for Iran to stop interfering in our affairs,” he has said at a discussion hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington, adding that Beirut is committed to direct, US-sponsored negotiations as “the only way to reclaim our land and secure the return of the displaced”.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says there are “strong indications” that Iran was involved in suspicious activity at a UK airbase that triggered a major security incident, AFP reports.

“There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham told the BBC in an interview, referring to a weekend bomb scare near the airbase in southwest England, which is used by the US military in its campaign against Tehran.

Lebanon’s National News Agency has reported that Israeli artillery struck the town of al-Khiam in the country’s southeast, while an explosion was also heard in the southeastern town of Houla near the Israeli border, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran’s national security chief Mohsen Rezaei, in an apparent warning to the UAE, has said that hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not have “favourable consequences”.

“Just as hosting US military bases has not brought you security, hosting the ‘Butcher of Gaza’ will also not have favourable consequences,” he writes on X, referring to Netanyahu’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip. “Learn from the last war, stop igniting wars, and cease issuing baseless claims regarding the Iranian islands!”

Earlier this week, it was reported that Netanyahu visited the UAE, though hsi destination was unknown at the time.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an advisory to airlines over Saudi airspace, following a recent increase in attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Reuters reports.

The latest advisory on Saudi Arabia does not mention today’s incident involving a diverted flydubai airliner, and EASA says it will continue to monitor the situation to assess whether there is an increase or decrease in risk for EU airlines in the country.

EASA, in a separate bulletin, now recommends that flights not operate within the airspace of Jordan at all altitudes and flight levels; a change from a previous advisory to exercise caution.

Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Atabak has mocked US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claims that the US can “sever” the country’s economic lifeline, saying that Bessent’s claim “lacks rational logic”, state news agency IRNA reports.

Atabak says Bessent made similar statements in the early days of the US-Israeli 12-day war on Iran last year, and that the US Treasury chief predicted Iran’s economic collapse within less than two days.

“The remarks made by the American official against Iran lack any rational logic, Atabak says, arguing that Bessent’s words “are not without bias, since the US is an adversary, and such claims do not merit serious attention”.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi says there is “military conflict” in the Strait of Hormuz every day and that Iran has been striking vessels in the waterway with little intervention from the US, Al Jazeera reports.

“We have been hitting small ships and preventing them from passing for a long time, but America does not respond,” Mohebbi says in an interview with the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Crude exports from Gulf oil producers, excluding Iran, have returned to pre-war levels seven months after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, reaching at least 16.5 million barrels per day in September, Al Jazeera reports citing maritime data firm Kpler.

Kpler says on social media that the recovery has changed regional oil logistics, with around 40 per cent of crude now leaving without crossing the strait, up from 17pc before the war, as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates make greater use of pipeline routes.

“Of the crude that crossed the Strait of Hormuz in August, more than 70pc changed tankers offshore,” Kpler states. “The volumes have recovered, but through a fundamentally different export system.”

An explosion in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad has destroyed a residential building and injured two people, Al Jazeera reports citing Iranian broadcaster IRIB, which cites a local fire department spokesperson.

According to the report, firefighters and emergency responders rushed to the scene and transported the injured to medical facilities. The cause of the explosion is being investigated.